1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that displays a screen, which is provided by a server, on a display unit using a browser, a control method for the image processing apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, an operation screen provided by a server connected to the information processing apparatus via a network is displayed on a display unit via a browser of the information processing apparatus. Specifically, the browser of the information processing apparatus requests an operation screen from the server, and in response to the request from the information processing apparatus, an application on the server sends the information processing apparatus an HTML file for displaying the operation screen on the display unit. The browser of the information processing apparatus analyzes the received HTML file, and displays on the display unit the operation screen based on descriptions of the HTML file. When a user inputs an instruction via the operation screen displayed on the display unit, the browser notifies the server of the input instruction. Upon receiving the notification, the application on the server carries out processing according to the input instruction.
Some image processing apparatuses such as an MFP (multi-functional peripheral) having a scanner and a printer have a browser described above. The MFP displays an operation screen, which is provided by a server, on a display unit according to the procedure described above to receive various instructions from a user.
As an exemplary image processing apparatus having a browser, there has been proposed an image processing apparatus in which an internal application receives a display request including a resource identifier from an external device, and transfers the received resource identifier to a browser, which in turn displays contents on a display unit (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-42098). According to this proposal, when the image processing apparatus changes in status, a remote application is notified of this change in status, and the remote application issues a display request to the internal application of the image processing apparatus, so that an error is displayed on the display unit.
According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2007-42098, however, when a display request is issued while a user is operating the image processing apparatus, operation screens of the display unit are forcefully changed, and hence the user has no choice but to suspend operation. Also, when the image processing apparatus recovers from an error, it is necessary to obtain screen information from a server again, and thus there is the problem that the user cannot go back to a screen on which operation was in progress. Under such circumstances, even with a “Return” operation on an ordinary browser, the user cannot go back to an immediately preceding state unless a screen that was displayed by the user is cached, and thus the user has to start operation all over again.